A chimpanzee and two trainees could run her!
Yet another new version of Windows 10!
A new update to Windows 10 was released just a few days ago, and once again the rollout was quite smooth.
The difference this time was that 1909 isn’t really a “Feature Update”.
It installs very quickly and changes… well, pretty much nothing!
Let’s take a quick look.
For those of us who don’t like webmail because storing all our data in the The Cloud just seems like a Really Bad Idea, the best e-mail program available for puters is Thunderbird.
There’s only one problem: the default version you can download from Mozilla’s web site is still 32-bit.
Firefox – and pretty much every other piece of software out there – went 64-bit a long time ago.
So, how do you go 64-bit with Thunderbird? And why would you want to?
If you’re like most internauts these days, you use Google’s Chrome web browser.
You may have noticed that after a certain update, Chrome started displaying colors incorrectly.
The change can be subtle, like with bright blues and purples appearing slightly “off”.
Things can also appear totally wonky, and your whole browser window can be tinted red, for example.
Fortunately, this is a known problem and there’s a very easy way to fix it!
You may have read my 2013 post entitled How to Easily Resize Images in Windows.
Thanks to a comment from a reader the other day (you rock, Nick!), you don’t need Windows Live Photo Gallery anymore.
There’s a free tool available from a Microsoft engineer that you can grab and make your life WAAAY easier.
You can even resize multiple images at once anywhere on your puter – in just a few clicks and without firing up any application!
You may have heard about the new-ish web browser in town: Brave.
The trouble is that it’s a bit hard to wrap one’s head around exactly how Brave is different – and supposedly better.
Brave was created by Brave Software, a company that was founded by Brendan Eich. In case you didn’t know, Eich is the creator of JavaScript. JS is basically the web programming language that powers literally everything on the internet these days.
So, when a dude like that says, “Hey, I have an idea for a better browser!” it’s probably a good idea to at least take a good look at it…
Until now, apps were for smartphones and tablets. But that’s all about to change with PWAs: Progressive Web Apps!
PWAs are a new(ish) type of app that is web-based.
In other words, PWAs are literally web sites + JavaScript encapsulated in a window on whatever gizmo you want to install them on.
That means you can use the same app on your phone, tablet, desktop, or laptop – whether you use Windows, linux, or Mac.
Progressive Web Apps also work differently than normal apps, making them a bit more secure and privacy-oriented than traditional native apps.
So, what are these things and how do they work?
Another new version of Windows 10!
A new update to Windows 10 was released a few weeks back, and this time the roll-out seemed to be way smoother than the last version – which is nice.
I got the update fairly quickly this time around, which almost never happens.
The update went off without a hitch. Naturally, I immediately started poking around to see what changed.
Well, not much… But as usual, there are a few things to re-tweak!
I’m always amazed at how many people these days still use webmail.
From Gmail to Yahoo Mail, it seems everyone enjoys the convenience of no crappy e-mail program, easily accessible e-mail from any device, and free data storage In the CloudTM.
In the case of Gmail, you can even use the same e-mail account on your smartphone. Yay, even more data for Google!
Naturally, there are huge drawbacks to the webmail approach, the biggest of which is privacy.
From Day One, webmail has been hoovering up all kinds of data. Recently, the world discovered that – duh – it’s worse than we think!
Oopsy!
With Firefox version 66.0.3, you probably found that all your add-ons have disappeared.
Firefox disables them and tells you that they are not compatible.
Not to worry: There’s a super-easy fix to get them back.
And you don’t have to reinstall them or anything…
If you’ve ever tried to do any kind of serious audio processing on a Windows puter, you know just how crappy the basic Win audio mixer and controls are.
Want to connect a digital mixer via USB to your puter? Good luck getting your recording software to work properly with both audio in and out.
Want to route audio from one app to another, like from recording software to Skype? Good luck with that, too.
Fortunately, a buddy of mine recently introduced me to a fabulous range of (free) software that turbocharges Windows audio.
Did I mention it’s free?